Far-right figures from across Europe gathered in northern Italy on Saturday for a rally aimed at building momentum as key elections approach in several EU countries, including France, after the defeat of long-time leader Viktor Orban in Hungary last weekend.
Hosted by Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's League party, the rally gathered members of Patriots for Europe, the alliance of nationalist, Eurosceptic parties that makes up the third-biggest bloc in the European Parliament.
It marked an attempt to regroup after Orban, a co-founder of the Patriots and one of the most entrenched hard-right figures within the EU, was voted out of power after 16 years in a decisive election loss to his pro-EU opponent Peter Magyar.
"Dear Viktor, you have defended the borders and fought human traffickers and arms traffickers. Let us all continue this fight together, for freedom and the rule of law," Salvini told the crowd of around 2,000 gathered in Milan's central square.
The far right is hoping for a different result in elections approaching in France, Italy, Spain and Poland next year.
A 2027 presidential vote will decide who takes over from French President Emmanuel Macron, who is standing down after serving the maximum two five-year terms.
"I've come here to Milan to reassure you: our victory in the upcoming presidential election is within reach. And we're getting ready to say goodbye to Macron," Jordan Bardella, the leader of France's National Rally party and chair of the Patriots for Europe, told Saturday's gathering.
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Marine Le Pen, the National Rally's longtime figurehead and potential presidential candidate, has described next year as "absolutely fundamental" for the far right.
The votes in France and other countries would give potential far-right winners "the means to radically change the course of the European Union from within", she said during an earlier visit to Budapest ahead of Orban's defeat.
Saturday's rally, organised under the slogan "Masters in our Own Home", was focused on the issue that has come to define the European far right – immigration.
Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right populist who lost ground to his centrist opponents in last year's parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, denounced what he called "a tsunami of mass immigration, illegal immigration, mostly from Islamic countries".
Bardella said the movement was also taking on other issues close to voters' concerns.
"We are going to address all the issues that are affecting European societies, in particular the issue of immigration and the ever-increasing regulations imposed by the European Commission and the European Union on European industry and on the economies of the eurozone," he told journalists ahead of the rally.
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Leaders of far-right parties in Austria, Greece and Estonia also addressed the crowd, while Spanish politicians from the Vox party sent a video message.
Orban, who has called for a "complete renewal" of his right-wing party following last week's defeat, did not attend.
In front of Milan's cathedral, Patriots supporters were joined by farmers protesting against free trade agreements and motorcyclists opposed to traffic restrictions.
They were also met by a counter-protest called by anti-fascist groups.
In Barcelona on the same day, progressives including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa gathered for a show of unity of the international left.
(with AFP)
